Fred Vasseur’s analysis of the Baku weekend
“The pace was there this weekend. That’s where the frustration comes from, because we had very strong race pace,” Fred Vasseur explained to Sky Sport F1. “We didn’t manage to put everything together on Saturday, and then we ended up stuck in traffic — first behind Lando Norris and then behind Yuki Tsunoda.”
Fred Vasseur added that overtaking proved extremely difficult: “It was very hard to recover on the straights, and we spent the last 25 to 30 laps in traffic. Honestly, this weekend was lost in qualifying rather than in the race, because we had the potential to deliver and we didn’t.”
When asked why Ferrari struggles to put everything together, the team principal admitted: “It’s difficult to analyze. We’ve had excellent races when McLaren were flying, but when they weren’t competitive, we weren’t either. This is because our car has very similar characteristics to McLaren’s. So, when they don’t shine, we don’t either.”
Fred Vasseur was also candid about what might have been possible: “That’s the situation and we cannot fight at the front like this. I’m a bit angry, because in qualifying we had a real chance to secure a place on the front row. That would have completely changed the weekend.”
Charles Leclerc’s car problem
In addition to strategic frustrations, vVasseur revealed that Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was affected by a minor technical anomaly: “With Charles, we had an issue with energy recovery that was not consistent on every lap. We were missing a couple of kilowatts, which was just enough to stop us from completing an overtake. We didn’t lose two-tenths in engine power, but we lost the chance to stay ahead — and so we spent the whole race stuck behind.”
For Ferrari, the Baku GP was another missed opportunity. Despite having a car that showed competitive pace, execution during qualifying and race management left the team empty-handed. The focus now shifts to the upcoming rounds, where the Scuderia will need to maximize its potential if it wants to keep up with McLaren and Red Bull in the fight at the front.
